


Burnt Bridges

by Boethiah



Category: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Canonical Character Death, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 20:19:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4680014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boethiah/pseuds/Boethiah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of separate, connected events.</p><p>As soon as he hears the engine of Luke’s landspeeder again, Obi-Wan steels himself. He knows what Luke’s seen, and he can probably guess what Luke will say.</p><p>So he stops Luke before the boy says something that will only hurt the both of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going off the interpretation presented in the Revenge of the Sith novelization (seriously, check it out) that Obi-Wan didn't kill Anakin because he wanted Anakin to suffer.
> 
> Some of these lines are lifted verbatim from the Star Wars films. I will note the ones that are for posterity's sake in the notes section, but since it's fucking Star Wars you'll probably recognize the ones that are.

Luke Skywalker felt like he was watching the world through the eyes of someone else.

As he disembarked, he held the side of his landspeeder to steady himself. The steel felt cold against his fingers: he had owned the speeder for years, but it didn't feel the same.  _Nothing_ felt the same. He had lived here all his life – he had been at this exact spot mere minutes ago – but now it seemed like a foreign planet, farther away from home than Coruscant.

He had a thousand things that he wanted to tell Obi-Wan. He wanted to tell him how Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would dote on him in ways he was never aware of until now. He wanted to talk about how Uncle Owen would always greet his friends with glasses of blue milk, or how well Aunt Beru would clean his landspeeder, or how much they had _meant_ to him and now they were _gone_ , they were _dead_ and they were _gone._ And then he realised that he wasn’t talking to Obi-Wan: he was talking to _Uncle Owen_ and _Aunt Beru_ and _himself_ and…

Obi-Wan spoke.

“Luke, there’s…nothing you could have done.”

Luke looked the old man dead in the face and walked towards him, fists clenched. One sentence was etched into his mind.

_That’s bullshit._

As he stared into Obi-Wan’s eyes, they seemed to grow into pools of light, and Luke slowly realised something. Obi-Wan was _right_. Luke had never so much as broken anyone’s nose, much less taken on an armed and armoured stormtrooper. Had he been there instead of with Obi-Wan, he would have been killed too-

“And the droids would now be in the hands of the Empire.” Obi-Wan nodded, as if completing his thoughts for him.

Luke fell silent, and stood there.

“I-I should’ve done something. I should’ve…” he stammered, holding back his tears.

C3P0 started to speak, but Obi-Wan shot him a glare that said _don’t_.

Luke wiped away his tears with his sleeve. His head turned downward, he looked at Obi-Wan again.

The old man saw something new in his eyes. Determination.

“I want to come with you to Alderaan. There’s nothing left for me here now.”

Obi-Wan suppressed a smile – there was the fire he had seen in his father’s eyes, all those years ago, before the dark days…

“And why would that be, Luke?”

Luke held his head higher, so that Obi-Wan could see him looking him in the eyes. “I want to learn the ways of the Force, and become a Jedi like my father. And make sure this never happens to anyone again.”

_Dangerous words._ Obi-Wan thought, but the old man said nothing: another time, perhaps. He put his hand on Luke’s shoulder.

“I have a story to tell you, if you’ll hear an old man out.”

 

* * *

 

It was only when they were safely out of the Empire’s reach that Obi-Wan remembered to tell Luke his story.

“Darth Vader still lives to this day, you know.” Obi-Wan said, over a plate of vweilu nuts Han had stolen during a job in Corellia. “Would you like to know why?”

Luke nodded, still chewing.

Obi-Wan looked down for a moment. “It’s my fault, I’m afraid. I didn’t kill him when I had the chance.”

“…what happened?”

“It was on the side of a volcano, on a planet called Mustafar. Your father was with me during our fight, and he fought more bravely than any Jedi I had ever seen. But in the end, your father was slain by Vader, his life taken by the Dark Side.”

Obi-Wan’s hand twitched.

“You must…imagine how it must have been for me, to have seen that happen to your father with my own two eyes. I was so… _angry_ , and in my anger…”

Obi-Wan saw Luke’s face. Luke’s eyes were wide – he had shown the boy a part of himself that had shocked him, a side that he was more comfortable not showing to anyone at all. But Luke had to learn.

“…I didn’t kill him, Luke. No.” He looked down. “I did something worse.”

“What did you do?”

Obi-Wan gave Luke a look that froze all of the blood in the boy’s body.

“I hacked off his limbs and left him to burn in the fire-pits of Mustafar.” he said, not flinching or breaking eye contact for a second. “He deserved it.”

Luke flinched back.

Listening from across the room, Han gulped. He was going to have a stern word with the geezer about how _hard_ those nuts were to get, but the old man’s story made him heavily reconsider his complaint.

Obi-Wan put his hands together.

“Nevertheless, he survived – in a manner of speaking, of course, but he survives. And the lives lost since that day, because of him…they’re what keep me up at night.” He decided not to trouble the boy with details.

“So…uh, what are you trying to say?” Luke said.

_As thick as his father was._ Obi-Wan thought.

“What I’m trying to say that in my anger, I let my enemy suffer a terrible fate that he nonetheless survived. He has killed many more since.” Obi-Wan ate another vweilu nut. “And since I failed to kill him on that day, I’m just as answerable for those deaths as he is. Do you understand?" 

Luke nodded. Obi-Wan sighed - he doubted that the boy fully understood.

“Learn from my mistake: never let your anger get the best of you, Luke. It is your enemy.”

The old man cleared his throat.

“Well, that’s not important right now. On to lighter things, shall we?”

 

* * *

 

Anakin’s world was fire and pain.

Obi-Wan stood above him, his face weary from screaming and crying. He had wasted far too much anger and sadness on this miserable wretch.

“I’m not going to kill you, Anakin.” he said. “But this - this is what you deserve.”

“I hate you.” he snarled back. “ _I hate you!_ ”

Anakin was too blinded by heat and anger to see, but Obi-Wan’s expression changed for a split second. He said nothing, but wordlessly, the Jedi – the _last_ Jedi, perhaps – held his hand out, and Anakin saw his own lightsaber fly into his former master’s grasp.

Obi-Wan turned his back and made his way towards the star skiff. He didn’t turn back, no matter how hotly the flames sizzled against Anakin’s skin or how loud his screams of agony were.

“Goodbye, Anakin. _Burn._ ” 


	2. Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The original text.

Firstly, most of the second half of the first part is derived from this exchange in A New Hope. Luke's dialogue is verbatim, with some additions added.

> BEN: There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire.
> 
> LUKE: I want to come with you to Alderaan. There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.

The entire second part is of my own devising, which probably explains the drop in writing quality. However, Anakin's sole line in the third part is, of course, from Revenge of the Sith.

> ANAKIN: I hate you!

This entire fan-fic runs counter to canon, but I left these bits in in an attempt to at least remain faithful to the spirit of Star Wars.


End file.
